The Tuskegee Syphilis Study - an Attack on Culture

This paper exploits the treatment an individual can give when one is different from them. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is an experiment that took forty-years in which African Americans were used to study the syphilis disease. Doctors were not able to give full disclosure and also practiced unsafe procedures to patients during the experiment. African Americans were taken advantage of due to their trust with authorities. Despite the discovery of penicillin, treatment for syphilis, doctors made sure participants were unaware of the findings. When it the experiment was discovered, researchers argued they were contributing to the medical research of syphilis. The manipulation of researchers made a controversy to the public, casting a light on medical practices. It was the start of the distrust in health care providers and questioning of clinical research. Furthermore, the occurrence of the study influenced the guidelines for future research. It contributed to help future studies be more careful with procedures and thoughtful of participants, no matter what their background may be.

Attack on Culture

Ever since the beginning of time, humankind’s history has been gifted with the knowledge and ability to adapt to its environment. Values, politics, belief systems and practices emerged as a result of our adaptability to time and change. The case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study by Allan M. Brandt shows that these values, politics, and belief systems can have negative results, once we start differentiating ourselves from one another when in reality, we are all of the same.

Culture Diversity

Power structures helps us gain a better understanding towards a society’s organization. It helps us identify how societies distribute power or authority within a single body or a group of people. Take a look at America’s power structure. Power is distributed by the people, as our country is run as a Democratic Republican. Checks and balances are also put into place as a way to maximize fairness and efficiency. The Kingdom of Eswatini on the other hand, is run by an absolute diarchy, where two bodies of authority have absolute power over the country. Culture and tradition is enriched in this country, like their well-known cultural event called Umhlanga Reed Dance.

Even though the African Americans that were victimized in the experiment were not disclosed with full information, they continued nonetheless because of the established trust in higher authorities (doctors, and the government) and their lack of power to go against those who do. This shows that power structures enables instability and unethical practices as well as it does for good.

Knowledge

Culture may be best understood as a system of different structures like history, values, politics, beliefs and how they practice it. These individual parts each have their own role to play in a society, but they also have the ability to interact with each other, in order for a society to thrive. The complexity of what makes a culture is essential in order for it to expand and prosper.

Empathy

During the time period of 1930’s, racism lingered. Many people associated people of color with disease, poverty, and crime. They visualize people of color, especially African Americans as the bottom of the Darwinian hierarchy. The Tuskegee Syphilis researches chose 300 African Americans as their patients because of their unique features, “wide nasal apertures, receding chins, projecting jaws”. Also, they were threatened by the African Americans because they believed they had a high sex drive. The society did not want the African Americans to reproduce more especially if it is with a Caucasian woman. The doctors proceeded with male African Americans because they saw it as an opportunity of “will be the end of the negro problem, Disease will accomplish what man cannot do”. It showed that the researchers had no care for their subjects, even if it means pain and death.

On the other hand, African Americans gave their full trust to the authorities. When they were handed an opportunity to participate in a research that would “cure” them and help society. When they found out they were being misguided and given false information about their procedure it led to the mistrust with the health care providers.

Attitudes

Cultural Relativism is knowing that one culture may be different from another, but it does not mean that it is any less of a culture than the other. Good practice would include refraining from verbally putting our opinions out there, considering that opinions are solely subjective, meaning that there is no truth to it unless scientifically proven. If anything, it sure would be a joy learning about different cultures around the world. Cultural diversity should be widely accepted as it should, as we may soon learn that we are more similar than we are different.

Global Self-Awareness

All throughout history, a series of experiments have been performed that challenged the moral campus of humanity. One of the many issues that society has faced is the Jewish experiment that was done by the Nazi. During the 1940’s, the prisoners of the Nazi endured “mutilation and pain, and many experiments had fatal outcomes”. During this trial, Dr. Josef Mengele, experimented on twins, in which they would do injections that causes one to vomit and have diarrhea also having blood taken from a person's neck. This resulted in the making of the first ethic document, Nuremberg Code, which states how to do a rightful ethical scientific research. The controversy that Tuskegee syphilis study showed were racism and deception of research. With the violation of ethical principles, rose moral issues in the health care community.

The main key of any research involving an organism is to be able to provide all information about the medical procedure in a way they would comprehend. Since the African American patients had no proper education, the researchers were proven that they have denied the patient's right to know about the procedures they have undergone, such as painful spinal tap. This study was able to ensure that patients will be able to get full disclosure of how these experiments affected their physical and mental health. The unethical studies that history experience has given us an opportunity to develop our strict laws in the medical system today.

Conclusions

The Tuskegee Syphilis study has left a mark in history with unpleasant memories. It showed the doctors that turned their back on the oath they took to save lives. Overall, the study is able to influence the code of ethics for all patients, to protect human rights. Although, it was the start of shortage in research participant due to the lack of trust many citizens have with healthcare providers. It can show medical providers the importance of honesty and communication with their patients. People of authority play a very significant role in a society’s well-being, especially if they are the ones trusted to lead. Morality should serve as a compass for those who are in power in order to protect its citizens well-being. The attack on the Tuskegee victims signifies that we should change our attitudes towards other cultures. That when we learn to understand the fact that we are more similar than we will ever be different can stop this horrible event from repeating itself.